Select Page ::

Global Impact of Covid-19 on Airgel Insulation Material Market to Record Significant Revenue Growth During the Forecast Period 20202025 |…

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

Latest Research Report: Airgel Insulation Material industry

This has brought along several changes in This report also covers the impact of COVID-19 on the global market.

Global Airgel Insulation Material Market documents a detailed study of different aspects of the Global Market. It shows the steady growth in market in spite of the fluctuations and changing market trends. The report is based on certain important parameters.

Get a Sample PDF copy of the report @ https://reportsinsights.com/sample/110421

Airgel Insulation Material Market competition by top manufacturers as follow: , AspenAerogel, BASF, NANO TECH, BCEGC, Surnano, NICHIAS

The risingtechnology in Airgel Insulation Materialmarketis also depicted in thisresearchreport. Factors that are boosting the growth of the market, and giving a positive push to thrive in the global market is explained in detail. It includes a meticulous analysis of market trends, market shares and revenue growth patterns and the volume and value of the market. It is also based on a meticulously structured methodology. These methods help to analyze markets on the basis of thorough research and analysis.

The Type Coverage in the Market are: Soundproof TypeWaterproof Type

Market Segment by Applications, covers:ConstructionAutomotiveFire FacilitiesHome AppliancesElectronic Machinery Manufacturing

The research report summarizes companies from different industries. This Airgel Insulation Material Market report has been combined with a variety of market segments such as applications, end users and sales. Focus on existing market analysis and future innovation to provide better insight into your business. This study includes sophisticated technology for the market and diverse perspectives of various industry professionals.

Airgel Insulation Material is the arena of accounting worried with the summary, analysis and reporting of financial dealings pertaining to a business. This includes the training of financial statements available for public ingesting. The service involves brief, studying, checking and reporting of the financial contacts to tax collection activities and objects. It also involves checking and making financial declarations, scheming accounting systems, emerging finances and accounting advisory.

To get this report at a profitable rate.: https://reportsinsights.com/discount/110421

Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversNorth AmericaEuropeChinaRest of Asia PacificCentral & South AmericaMiddle East & Africa

Report Highlights: Detailed overview of parent market Changing market dynamics in the industry In-depth market segmentation Historical, current and projected market size in terms of volume and value Recent industry trends and developments Competitive landscape Strategies of key players and products offered Potential and niche segments, geographical regions exhibiting promising growth A neutral perspective on market performance Must-have information for market players to sustain and enhance their market footprint

Access full Report Description, TOC, Table of Figure, Chart, [emailprotected] https://reportsinsights.com/industry-forecast/Airgel-Insulation-Material-Market-110421

About US:

Reports Insights is the leading research industry that offers contextual and data-centric research services to its customers across the globe. The firm assists its clients to strategize business policies and accomplish sustainable growth in their respective market domain. The industry provides consulting services, syndicated research reports, and customized research reports.

:(US) +1-214-272-0234

:(APAC) +91-7972263819

Email:[emailprotected]

Sales:[emailprotected]

See the rest here:

Global Impact of Covid-19 on Airgel Insulation Material Market to Record Significant Revenue Growth During the Forecast Period 20202025 |...

Tessa Therapeutics Announces Results from Two Independent Phase 1/2 Trials of Autologous CD30 CAR-T Cell Therapy in Patients with Relapsed or…

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

DetailsCategory: DNA RNA and CellsPublished on Thursday, 06 August 2020 16:44Hits: 272

SINGAPORE I August 6, 2020 I Tessa Therapeutics (Tessa), a clinical-stage cell therapy company developing next-generation cancer treatments, today announced the publication of results in the Journal of Clinical Oncology from two investigator-sponsored Phase 1/2 trials led by Baylor College of Medicine and the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Results of the trials, which evaluated the safety and efficacy of CD30 CAR-T cell therapy in patients with relapsed/refractory ("R/R") Hodgkin lymphoma, showed a high rate of durable complete responses and very favorable safety profile using autologous CD30 CAR-T cell therapy.

"These data are significant, as they demonstrate that CAR-T cell therapy may be a safe and effective treatment option for patients with Hodgkin lymphoma and potentially other lymphomas expressing the CD30 antigen," said Dr. Natalie Grover, study co-first author, assistant professor in the UNC Department of Medicine and a UNC Lineberger member. "The highest dose treatment led to the complete disappearance of tumors in the majority of patients, and almost all subjects had clinical benefit. As such, we believe further study of this treatment approach is warranted," said Dr. Carlos Ramos, study co-first author, professor at the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Methodist Hospital and Texas Children's Hospital.

The trials enrolled 41 adult patients with relapsed/refractory Hodgkin Lymphoma who received CD30 CAR-T cell therapy following lymphodepletion with chemotherapy. Overall, 94 percent of the treated patients were still alive a year after treatment. Of the patients who had a complete response, 61 percent still had no evidence of recurrence a year later. None of the patients experienced the serious, life-threatening complications that have been seen with several CD19 CAR-T cell trials. The overall response rate in the 32 patients with active disease who received fludarabine-based lymphodepletion was 72%, including 19 patients (59%) with complete response.

"We have been working with Baylor and the University of North Carolina to confirm these impressiveresults further in a Tessa-sponsored regulatory Phase 2 trial, which we aim to initiate this year," said Ivan D. Horak, M.D., President of Research and Development at Tessa Therapeutics. "Longer term, we seek to explore the potential of this therapy beyond Hodgkin's lymphoma to CD30+ expressing Non-Hodgkin lymphomas, where there is a demonstrated unmet need."

University of North Carolina has granted Tessa an exclusive license to its patents, data and know-how, and Baylor College of Medicine has granted Tessa the rights to use its data and know-how, for the further development and commercialization of this therapy. "We are excited to collaborate with Tessa. Their ability to run multi-center cell therapy clinical trials will be invaluable for the further development of this therapy," said Helen Heslop, director of the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy and Dan L Duncan Chair at Baylor.

About Tessa Therapeutics

Tessa Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the development of cell therapies for a broad range of cancers.

Tessa's clinical pipeline derives from two innovative cell therapy platforms: CD30 Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CD30-CARs) and Virus-Specific T cells (VSTs). Our lead candidate comprises autologous CD30 CAR-T cell therapy targeting classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) and CD30+ non-Hodgkin lymphomas.

Tessa, in collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine, is also developing a novel, allogeneic platform technology, as a new approach to traditional cell therapy. By combining the unique properties CD30-CARs and VSTs, the platform holds potential for the creation of next-generation off-the-shelf cell therapies against a variety of hematologic malignancies and solid tumors.

Tessa's state-of-the-art GMP cell therapy manufacturing facility will open in early 2021 and will substantially enhance in-house production capabilities. Tessa is focused on rapidly and reliably providing safe, effective treatment options for patients.

For more information on Tessa, please visit http://www.tessatherapeutics.com.

SOURCE: Tessa Therapeutics

Tessa Therapeutics Announces Results from Two Independent Phase 1/2 Trials of Autologous CD30 CAR-T Cell Therapy in Patients with Relapsed or...

Cancer Gene Therapy Market Latest Treatment Methodology 2020 to 2025 – Owned

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

The report gives a complete investigation of the Cancer Gene Therapy Market and key improvements. The exploration record comprises of past and figure showcase data, prerequisite, territories of use, value strategies, and friends portions of the main organizations by topographical district. The Cancer Gene Therapy report separates the market size, by volume and worth, depending upon the kind of utilization and area.

Request sample copy of this report at:-

https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/request-sample?product_id=16156&utm_source=primefeed_medium=24

With everything taken into account, the Cancer Gene Therapy report offers inside and out profile and information data life structures of driving Cancer Gene Therapy organizations.

Top Companies Name: Urigen Pharmaceuticals Inc. (U.S), GenVec.Inc (U.S), Oxford BioMedica (U.K), Vical (U.S), ANI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (U.S), and Genzyme Corporation (U.S). Novartis AG and Others.

Global Cancer Gene Therapy Market by Geography: Latin America, North America, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa and Europe.

Types:-

Retroviral Therapy

Adenoviral Therapy

Others

Applications:-

Hospitals

Oncology institutes

Biotechnological companies

Others

Request Customization at:-

https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/request-customisation?product_id=16156&utm_source=primefeed_medium=24

The Cancer Gene Therapy report presents a point by point estimation of the market through complete appraisal, fantastic experiences, and bona fide expectations managing the Cancer Gene Therapy market size. It depends on attempted and tried methodologies alongside convictions in the event of the estimate made accessible. In this manner the nitty gritty investigation of Cancer Gene Therapy market fills in as a repository of examination and information for each part of the market, especially concerning nearby markets, innovation, classifications, and use.

The report involves the estimation of the Global Cancer Gene Therapy Market. The accompanying Industry is appeared to advance with a critical ascent in the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) during the conjecture time frame attributable to different elements driving the market.

The key points of the report:

The extent of the report stretches out from market situations to similar valuing between significant players, cost and benefit of the predetermined market areas. The numerical information is upheld up by factual apparatuses, for example, SWOT investigation, Porters Five Analysis, PESTLE examination, etc.

About Us:

Precision Business Insights is one of the leading market research and management consulting firm, run by a group of seasoned and highly dynamic market research professionals with a strong zeal to offer high-quality insights. We at Precision Business Insights are passionate about market research and love to do the things in an innovative way. Our team is a big asset for us and great differentiating factor. Our company motto is to address client requirements in the best possible way and want to be a part of our client success. We have a large pool of industry experts and consultants served a wide array of clients across different verticals. Relentless quest and continuous endeavour enable us to make new strides in market research and business consulting arena.

[emailprotected]

PH +1-866-598-1553

Link:

Cancer Gene Therapy Market Latest Treatment Methodology 2020 to 2025 - Owned

Kriya Therapeutics announces the establishment of its internal manufacturing facility for process development and scalable cGMP production of gene…

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

PALO ALTO, Calif. and RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Aug. 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Kriya Therapeutics announced today that it has secured a 51,350 square foot operational manufacturing facility in Research Triangle Park (RTP), North Carolina to support the scalable production of its pipeline of AAV-based gene therapies for highly prevalent serious diseases. The facility is designed to have its own fully integrated process development lab, quality control and analytical development capability, pilot production suite, and current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) production infrastructure. Kriya will manufacture gene therapies at the facility using its scalable suspension cell culture manufacturing process at up to 2,000-liter bioreactor scale. The facility's pilot production suite and full cGMP manufacturing infrastructure are expected to be online in the first and second half of 2021, respectively.

"Manufacturing continues to be a critical bottleneck to the advancement of gene therapies for prevalent diseases," said Britt Petty, Chief Manufacturing Officer at Kriya Therapeutics. "With the establishment of our cGMP manufacturing facility in North Carolina, we are preparing to have the capacity to support our pipeline of programs addressing large patient populations, from initial INDs through late-phase clinical studies. Moreover, we are investing in process innovation and scalable infrastructure with the goal of reducing the cost of goods of our therapies by orders of magnitude."

"As we develop our platform technologies and advance our pipeline of gene therapies, we are committed to securing the capacity to support the manufacturing of our products at scale," said Shankar Ramaswamy, M.D., Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Kriya Therapeutics. "Our investment in our RTP facility helps establish this capability in a region with tremendous talent in gene therapy manufacturing, while also enabling our team to focus on innovations to bring down the cost of goods of our gene therapies."

About Kriya Therapeutics

Kriya Therapeutics is a next-generation gene therapy company focused on developing transformative treatments for highly prevalent serious diseases. With core operations in California and North Carolina, Kriya's technology-enabled platform is directed to the rational design and clinical translation of gene therapies for large patient populations. For more information, please visit http://www.kriyatx.com.

Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements pertaining to the usage and capabilities of our manufacturing facility, our costs, and the potential of our platform. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release reflect Kriya's current views with respect to future events, and Kriya does not undertake and specifically disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

Contact Daniel Chen Chief Financial Officer [emailprotected]

SOURCE Kriya Therapeutics

https://www.kriyatx.com/

View original post here:

Kriya Therapeutics announces the establishment of its internal manufacturing facility for process development and scalable cGMP production of gene...

Regenxbio announces positive one-year data on wet AMD gene therapy – Seeking Alpha

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

REGENXBIO (NASDAQ:RGNX) announces positive one-year data from cohorts 4 & 5 of its Phase 1/2a clinical trial evaluating gene therapy RGX-314 in patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD).

The treatment effect was stable with a mean +4 letter change in best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and -2 letters from baseline. Mean changes in retinal thickness of-61 m and -79 m, respectively,were observed.

Anti-VEGF treatment burden dropped by 61% and 85%, respectively.

On the safety front, 18 serious adverse events were reported, one considered possibly related to RGX-314 (decrease in vision at month 11).

A pivotal study in wet AMD should launch by year-end.

Another Phase 2 assessing suprachoroidal delivery of RGX-314 in wet AMD patients will commence this quarter with interim data from the first cohort expected by year-end.

Management will host a conference call this morning at 8:30 am ET to discuss the results.

Excerpt from:

Regenxbio announces positive one-year data on wet AMD gene therapy - Seeking Alpha

How White Nationalists Weaponize Motherhood – The Cut

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

Photo: Getty Images/fStop

In many ways, Alya Stewarts motherhood led her to the white-supremacy movement. When Stewart had her first child in 2003, she was a pro-gay-rights feminist in her early 20s who followed a vegan diet and studied midwifery, according to a new book called Sisters in Hate. But after getting her masters degree in womens spirituality, her politics began to shift. Journalist Seyward Darby writes about how Stewart converted to Mormonism, had more kids, and began posting about how men should be the dominant breadwinners and women should focus on family life. When feminists criticized her philosophy, she decided stay-at-home mothers werent welcome in the womens rights movement and that it demonized white men, like her husband.

She gravitated toward the alt-right corners of the internet places that embraced her increasingly traditional lifestyle. And by 2017, her blog and YouTube channel interspersed spelt cookie recipes and and videos of her kids in the garden with racist screeds about the refugee crisis and musings on how good mothers should dress modestly, speak softly, and avoid urban accents. But she didnt want to be labeled a white supremacist, and Stewart used motherhood to obscure her racist beliefs.

In proudly showing off her life, Ayla demanded to know one thing, writes Darby, if all she wanted was safety, prosperity, and health for her family and nation, how could she be considered hateful?

Sisters in Hate tells the story of Stewart and two other women who were at some point involved in racist hate groups: Corinna Olsen, a former neo-Nazi who disavowed the movement and converted to Islam, and Lana Lokteff, a prominent white supremacist whose online TV and radio shows were banned from YouTube in 2019. Darby writes about how each character was drawn to white supremacy for different reasons a sense of belonging (Olsen), creed (Stewart), power (Lokteff) and she intersperses their stories with historical and psychological context to explain why women have always been a valuable part of American hate movements.

The Cut spoke with Darby, a self-described feminist from the South, about how femininity and motherhood are some of the far rights greatest weapons.

You lay out ample evidence that white women are a key demographic in hate movements. Why is white nationalism most often associated with men?

To be fair, men are often the group leaders and certainly the people committing violence. And so I completely understand why you would want to focus on those very visible and often very harmful manifestations of hate. But while women might not be the ones leading conferences, they are helping build the infrastructure of these movements.

Women have been deeply instrumental in everything from the KKK to the Nazis to the resistance of civil rights. And yet they have been repeatedly written out of the history of bigotry. I think theres a benevolent sexism there, where people make assumptions about women having an inherent goodness, or an inherent fragility or vulnerability, and assume they couldnt possibly be the bad actors. There was this myth after World War II of the apolitical German woman who was trapped in the country and had to go along with the Holocaust. Women who were seen as meek and matronly and feminine quite literally got away with murder. At the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, we saw a lot of images of white men in white polo shirts, but behind the scenes, a woman was kind of the chief organizer online. You could argue that work is just as important as walking up to the front line, carrying a tiki torch.

Why are women so valuable to white nationalism? Lokteff, one of the women in your book, said When women get involved a movement becomes a serious threat and A soft woman saying hard things can create repercussions throughout society. What does she mean?

There are a couple of layers to that. The most basic biological one is that white nationalism is a deeply pro-natal movement. The whole narrative is that white America is under threat and you should have as many white children as you can. Nazis gave women medals based on how many children they had. (Stewart became notorious in mainstream media after tweeting about a white baby challenge.) But the much more outward facing layer is that women are seen as bridges who can communicate with the mainstream. There are some who say the vilest things imaginable. But there are a lot who say, We just want to love our heritage. We just want to love our children. Look at me, Im just a nice white woman trying to live her life. What could be so bad about that?

And you describe in the book how motherhood and children are weaponized. For example, in one online post, Stewart included an image of her toddler-age daughter wearing a frog costume an homage to Pepe the Frog, who has become an alt-right mascot. Can you say more about how this works?

Women like Ayla who really showcase their children are ready-made for the Instagram era in a way. Its like, Heres what we made for dinner, here are my children raking the yard. Look at my blissful life. I think theyre daring critics of white nationalism to say something critical so they can retort: Are you saying that my children are dangerous little Hitlers in the making?

Theres an obvious pernicious PR slant to showing off how normal they are. Theres some people that are going to be kind of seduced by that idea and think, You havent said any racial slurs, you havent promoted violence. This cant possibly be bad! When its convenient to them, these women wear their motherhood status as a shield. Theyre saying, Its not that I hate Black people, I just want the best for my own children. So I want to live in an all-white community or homeschool my kids. Its manipulative.

Its also an incredibly effective recruitment tactic.

The women in these movements are appealing to other white women who might have the same kind of thoughts, impulses, and instincts. Im sure you know women who would probably say I would send my kids to public schools if the public schools were better. From there, the conversation can become more racially overt, right?

I wanted to find these points of familiarity where the things that women were saying and doing on the far right actually sounded a lot like people I know. Theres a tendency to think of white nationalists as crazy or to other them. But plenty of people who are educated and financially comfortable can find a place in this space. And women are very important in drawing new believers in.

The way women draw in new members is often less aggressive than men. You write about how they might invite someone over for wine, or use community picnics and Bible studies groups as scouting grounds.

A sociologist named Kathleen Blee wrote about how when it comes to radicalization, shes most worried about spaces that might not seem vulnerable or risky in some way. So, for example, communities around anti-vaccination or homeschooling, where people come together around some shared beliefs usually having to do with autonomy of an individual or family that, if taken to the extreme, can lead to a way of seeing the world thats racist and exclusive.

As a parent, there are a number of spaces where youre going to be talking about the well-being of your children. That is of course a natural impulse and good parenting. But a good parent should also be thinking about the ways in which their desire to protect their children can lead to things like opportunity hoarding, or a kind of exclusionary way of seeing people who are not like you.

Can you talk about the relationship between tradlife short for the traditional lifestyle of wifely submissiveness and the white-supremacist movement?

I think that women in this space kind of go back to the idea of motherhood as cherished and unassailable. White-nationalist women are saying motherhood doesnt have to be sullied by the muck of feminism, the workplace, and multiculturalism. You can just focus on being a cherished, hardworking, domestic goddess. In the white-nationalist movement, children, just like women, are kind of supposed to inspire this instinct to protect by all means necessary. Its very much playing on this idea that they are the most vulnerable to social upheaval.

This kind of thinking sounds similar to arguments Phyllis Schlafly and other conservative women used to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment in the 70s.

Theres a lot of similarity. Schlafly defined privilege as being a wife and a mother. She felt threatened by people with less privilege gaining power, and wanted to fend off forces like feminism, which was deeply tied up in the civil-rights movement. The racism of her campaign was less overt but the coded language of the campaign was to say, We dont want to disrupt the order of things.

Similarly, in todays hate movements, women talk about fighting for the status quo and have this nostalgic idea of what it means to be a housewife. But the difference is they dont want to be seen as the stodgy Phyllis Schlaflys restoring the world to this Rockwellian idea of America. They consider themselves rebels and countercultural because they define the mainstream as feminist and multicultural. Theres definitely a cognitive dissonance there.

Your book has been published at a time when police brutality against Black people has spurred mass protests and a focus on anti-racism. What value is there to learning about white womens roles in a hateful movement?

I hope that the book shows how there is a spectrum of bigotry that even women who are liberals and feminists fall into. Im also a pretty pessimistic person, so while people are talking about race in a constructive way and theres the potential for profound change, I also think there will be a backlash. The far right is already using the Black Lives Matter movement as a way to appeal to white peoples fears and grievances about a changing future. I think white nationalists definitely see an opening to recruit white women who feel like I was told Youre the oppressor and I couldnt handle that.

We should be attentive to the ways in which people on the alt-right see potential for their tentacles to touch somebody. Where is this happening? Can we see whos vulnerable to it? History shows that moments of upheaval and change inspire hope but can also inspire some people to feel hate.

Get the Cut newsletter delivered daily

How White Nationalists Weaponize Motherhood - The Cut

X marks the spot: Lakeside Beach home to a newly discovered shipwreck – CBC.ca

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

People often wander the surrounding coastline of Prince Edward Island looking for shells, sea glass or interesting rocks.

But occasionally, people discover something more, revealed by the shifting sands.

"I've been coming to this beach for more than 30 years," said Craig Mackie, who spends much of the summer in the Lakeside Beach area.

"This summer, after one of the storms, I noticed that there were some odd wooden shapes in the sand."

Mackiereturned to the area known by residents as Lake Run and noticed more of the wooden structure was revealed. It piqued his curiosity and he started reaching out to find out more about what he suspected could be an old boat.

He posted photos and what he knew online and got a bigreaction from others curious about what was under the sand.

"I love the way people are connecting to this and they want to know more," Mackie said.

"This place, this province and the people here are very good at keeping their history and telling the stories, and I wanted to know if I could find out what the story of this ship was."

Enter P.E.I.'s director of Indigenous relations secretariat andarcheology Helen Kristmanson. She and staff archeologist Erin Montgomery were out at the site on Thursday morning.

"Shipwrecks are magical places and people get very excited when they find them, and so they should because they'regreat finds," said Kristmanson.

The two began uncovering what they could in the loose sand, looking for edges in the weathered wooden boards. They took measurements and samples, as well as photographs of the find.

A clue to the age of the vessel were tree nails, a type of construction technology.

"These were essentially large nails made out of wood that were put into prepared holes in the ship and when they become engorged with water they swell and create a tight seal. And there are still plenty of tree nails left in this wreck for us to look at," said Kristmanson.

The vessel was found parallel to the shore, prompting Kristmanson to call it a shipwreck instead of a boat that had run aground.

She said the chanceof finding any artifacts would be small, as often the owner or others in the area would clean up any objects they could shortly after the boatcame ashore.

Kristmanson said it could be hard to identify vessels like this one.

"They may be here, you knowsince the mid-1800s.They've been knocked around by the ocean and ice and eroded by sand and wind and there's not that much left of them," Kristmanson said.

"You know it's really just the wood. There's not really metal hardware, there's not usually much or any other sort of clues to its identity."

The data gathered will be recorded and shared with an expert in Nova Scotia. Archives will be examined to see if the identity of the boat can be uncovered.

Kristmanson encouraged anyone who makes a discovery like the one near Lakeside to report it.

"If you come across one of these shipwrecks,the first thing to do is to contact our office, the provincial archeologist's office with the government of P.E.I.," Kristmanson said.

"We love it when people take pictures and measurements and send us information, maybe [global positioning system] location."

Based on the initial findings, Kristmanson said it was likely the wreck was from the 1800s.

"These shipwrecks turn up every once in a while. You know a storm like Dorian might blow the sands out of here and expose a wreck like this. And it'll probably disappear again for a while and be rediscovered by somebody in the future," Kristmanson said.

Continued here:

X marks the spot: Lakeside Beach home to a newly discovered shipwreck - CBC.ca

The Tour: SWCC’s Hell Week – ShadowSpear Special Operations

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen (SWCC) operators complete demanding tactical training throughout their careers, but before becoming a SWCC operator they must first pass a 72-hour crucible during the fifth week of the SWCC Basic Crewman Selection (BCS) course called the Tour.

On Time, On Target, Never Quit is the SWCC motto, a valuable maxim the men and women learn at Basic Crewman Selection, take to heart when they embark on the Tour during Basic Crewman Training, and they take with them throughout their careers.

The Tour is 72 hours of physically and mentally demanding training evolutions designed to replicate harsh environments that SWCC operators may encounter in their carrier as a Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen, said Chief Warrant Officer Four Joshua Hummel, SWCC school officer in charge.

During 23 hours of running and five miles swimming, the candidates complete grueling team building activities that develop unity, teamwork, character and humility. Pushed by a team of experienced SWCC instructors under demanding environmental conditions, candidates learn to work as a boat team and also to help the person next to them during life threatening situations.

The hardest part for a student is changing their mentality and habits, said Hummel. Anyone can show up to SWCC school for a day. It takes someone with self-discipline and mental perseverance to do it every day. From day one until they graduate the students have to realize becoming an elite operator isnt something you do one day a week or two weeks a month, its something you do every day, its a lifestyle.

SWCC operators work closely with Navy SEALs by providing clandestine insertion capabilities in coastal areas while operating specialized craft used to deliver operators and provide heavy weapons and other critical support. They conduct special reconnaissance, patrol, as well as Visit, Board, Search and Seizure on suspected maritime craft. The Tour is the end of the initial training and where candidates get selected to become SWCC operators, and proceeds the 14-week long Crewman Qualification Training which is just a portion of the six-month A-school.

BCS is administered by Basic Training Command, a component of Navy Special Warfare (NSW) Center, in Coronado, CA. NSW Center provides initial and advanced training to the Sailors who make-up the Navys SEAL and Special Boat Teams. For more information on SWCC and how to become part of it, visit http://www.SEALSWCC.com.

More here:

The Tour: SWCC's Hell Week - ShadowSpear Special Operations

30 US troops died in single deadliest incident of the Afghanistan War 9 years ago in Extortion 17 mission – American Military News

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

The U.S. suffered its deadliest single-incident loss of life in all ofOperation Enduring Freedom Afghanistan when a U.S. CH-47D, call-signed Extortion 17, was shot down on August 6, 2011.

All 38 passengers aboard Extortion 17, including 30 U.S. military personnel, eight Afghans and a U.S. military working dog, were killed after the transport helicopter was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade.Extortion 17 was attached to a mission to capture or kill a senior Taliban leader, Qari Tahir, near Kabul, Afghanistan.

Among the American passengers, 17 were U.S. Navy SEALs, including 15 Special Warfare Development Group, also known as SEAL Team 6 or DEVGRU. Just three months before the crash, SEAL Team 6 had risen to prominence for its involvement in the raid to take out Al Qaeda terror leader Osama Bin Laden.

Today we Honor and Remember those we lost on 08.06.11. The United States sustained the greatest single loss of lives to our Special Operations Forces in American history when U.S. Army CH-47D Chinook, call sign Extortion 17, was shot down by Taliban fighters. Never Forget, the Navy SEAL Foundation tweeted Thursday in tribute to those who died.

Other Americans aboard Extortion 17 included Navy Special Warfare support personnel, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army aircrew members.The Afghans aboard the helicopter included seven Afghan National Army commandos and an Afghan interpreter.

Prior to the downing of Extortion 17, the previous single deadliest incident involving Americans deployed to Afghanistan was during Operation Red Wings on June 28, 2005, when 11 Navy SEALS and eight Army Night Stalkers were killed.

Today we honor the Fathers, Husbands, Sons, Brothers and Friends that were lost 9 years ago on Extortion 17 #neverforget, theSpecial Operations Warrior Foundation tweeted a video tribute.

The complete list of Americans killed includes:

On Thursday, Forged Clothing, a clothing brand started by former Navy SEALS, tweeted a video of a letter written by one of the men killed, Heath M. Robinson days before the incident.

Today marks the 9th anniversary of Extortion 17. We would like to dedicate this week to honoring and remembering the brothers and heroes we lost that day. Please take a moment to listen to DEVGRU Gold Squadron Heath M. Robinsons Mother read his last words, Forged tweeted.

Team Never Quit, a podcast started by Navy SEAL and Operation Red Wings survivor Marcus Luttrell also paid tribute to those killed in the Extortion 17 incident.

We will #NEVERFORGET these warriors. Beloved Fathers, Husbands, Brothers, and Sons. #Extortion17, Team Never Quit tweeted.

Excerpt from:

30 US troops died in single deadliest incident of the Afghanistan War 9 years ago in Extortion 17 mission - American Military News

Calloway Road Dept. to take part in rubber-modified asphalt study – Murray Ledger and Times

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

FRANKFORT Next month, Calloway County will become one of six Kentucky counties to take part in a study to determine the effectiveness of using asphalt made with recycled tires to resurface roads.

In June, Gov. Andy Beshear and Energy and Environment Cabinet (EEC) Secretary Rebecca Goodman announced that Calloway County would receive $56,100 grant for a rubber-modified asphalt project utilizing waste tires. The grant was part of a $482,749 total in grant funding that went to six counties, which also included Hardin ($114,514), Simpson ($85,830), McLean ($85,000), Butler ($101,430) and Green ($39,875) counties.

The news release from the EEC said the grant funding would be used for the application of chip seal or asphalt overlay to county or metro government roads. Chip seal also often called chip-and-seal is a road surface treatment that combines one or more layers of asphalt with one or more layers of fine aggregate and can extend the life of a road by four to eight years. Asphalt overlay is a new layer of asphalt applied over an existing asphalt surface and can extend the road life by seven to 10 years, the EEC said.

On July 15, the Calloway County Fiscal Court voted to accept the grant. The funding comes from the Waste Tire Trust Fund, which receives $2 from every new tire sold in the state. Road Supervisor Joel Stansberry said he thinks the program is a smart way to reuse the rubber from old tires.

(The state) doesnt have a way to get rid of everything, so theyre trying to find new ways to recycle them, Stansberry said. Theyre going to try it with the roads by making an asphalt out of it (to get) rubberized chip-and-seal. It seems like a really good program to recycle tires (to have less) waste and put them back into use. We drive on roads with our tires, so it may make them smoother; I dont know.

Im really thankful that they considered us for the grant. Any little bit we can get to help out our county is an improvement. Thats what we strive for, to make Calloway County better.

Stansberry said he plans to start the project around the middle of September, depending on the weather. The crew will start by using the new material to resurface Samuel Road, which is west of Kirksey and just south of KY 464. After that, workers will use the standard materials on Swift Road, which is north of Kirksey and to the west of Kirksey Road (KY 299).

With Samuel, were going to do a mile of the rubberized chip-and-seal, and thats going to be our test road, Stansberry said. Then were going to do a mile on Swift with the regular chip-and-seal and do a five-year study on it to see which one performed the best.

The plan right now is (to start the project) the middle of September. Thats when were shooting for, but if it rains a lot, we cant do it while its raining. Well do the rubberized (on Samuel first), and I dont know if well have enough time in the same day to do the other, but it will be back-to-back. It should be the next day, at least.

Paul Rister, the magistrate representing the countys 4th District, said he applied for the grant on the countys behalf after Deputy Judge-Executive Gina Winchester told him it was available. He said he had some grant-writing experience from when he used to work for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.

It was a short write-up; it involved some math and figuring out what we wanted to do and finding a couple of good roads since its a comparison study, Rister said. I tried to put it all together and got lucky. I probably should have asked to do more, but we got what we got.

Rister said it is a 50/50 grant, which means the grant pays for the mile of rubber-modified asphalt and the county will pay for the mile of regular chip-and-seal. He said the EEC wanted the two roads to be close together and have similar traffic counts, and over the next five years, the state will periodically check on the roads to compare their conditions. He said Trigg County had participated in a similar study several years ago, and Judge-Executive Hollis Alexander had reported good results so far.

There are so many spare tires out there that people are trying to get rid of, so if this is a good process to reuse and recycle tires, then its possibly something for the future if it holds up as good as regular asphalt, Rister said.

Calloway County Judge-Executive Kenny Imes said he was pleased to receive the grant and be involved with the study.

Weve got 720 miles of road here and we cant keep caught up, Imes said. We just dont have the staff or the money to make headway; were not even breaking even. Any time we can get some help (with roads is welcome).

Imes said that with the recycling market having gone downhill in the last few years, it is encouraging any time a new use is found for recycled materials. In this case, it is rubber tires, but he said he had also recently read about how India is using plastic to resurface roads.

Some of them have been down for 20-something years and look just like they did the day (they were paved) other than getting lighter, Imes said. I dont know when the United States is going to look at that as a way of using our plastics as the adhesive, and maybe you (also) use asphalt. We cant experiment because we dont have the equipment or technology here to develop a road, but Indias done it, and as a nation, I think we need to look at more things like that.

See original here:

Calloway Road Dept. to take part in rubber-modified asphalt study - Murray Ledger and Times

CDC Blames Travel From 3 Countries For COVID-19 Spreading Around The World – Study Finds

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

ATLANTA, Ga. To date, there are more than 18 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 around the world. The virus has spread to every corner of the globe throughout 2020 and tragically caused nearly 700,000 deaths. So how did things get so bad? A new study finds the first cases in at least two-thirds of infected nations are linked to travel involving China, Italy, and Iran.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says an examination of COVID-19 records during the first 11 weeks of the outbreak reveals a strong connection to the pandemic spreading out of these countries. From Dec. 31, 2019 to March 10, 2020, the first case of coronavirus in 75 of 99 affected nations (outside of China) involves a person traveling to an area where the virus was already spreading.

Of those cases, 27 percent of first infections involve a person traveling to Italy. Another 22 percent start with people visiting China, and 11 percent of nations were affected by contact with Iran.

Our findings suggest that travel from just a few countries with substantial SARS-CoV-2 transmission may have seeded additional outbreaks around the world, says the CDCs Dr. Fatimah Dawood in a media release.

The CDC says this is the first study looking at how international travel spread COVID-19 before the outbreak was officially declared a pandemic. Over 32,000 cases in 99 countries outside of mainland China were recorded during the first 11 weeks of 2020.

Travel to Italy in particular had a devastating impact on several continents and the countries within. Three of the six first cases in Africa have ties to Italy. Over a third 16 of 45 nations in Europe and nearly 40 percent of countries in the Americas link initial infections to Italy.

Exposures linked to mainland China account for nearly all of the first cases in the Western Pacific 10 out of 12 countries. The Chinese city of Wuhan is suspected of being the origin point for SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19.

The scientists also link 44 percent of first cases in the Eastern Mediterranean to travel to and from Iran.

The CDC team says they have in-depth data on 1,200 of the initial coronavirus cases from 68 different countries. From that information, they are creating a picture of how and where the virus was spread in January, February, and March.

Among these early cases, the average age of a COVID-19 patient is 51. Just three percent are younger than 18 years-old and only two percent of the patients are healthcare workers.

During this pre-pandemic period, the CDC study shows the virus was most commonly passed on to others inside a household. These transmissions get an average of 2.6 people sick.The report also reveals faith-based groups and dinner parties played the biggest role in widespread transmission of COVID-19. An average of over 14 people were diagnosed with coronavirus after attending one of these gatherings.

Four large clusters in our analysis, and large outbreaks reported elsewhere, have been linked with transmission in faith-based settings, highlighting the need to partner with faith-based organizations when designing and implementing community mitigation efforts, says co-author Dr. Philip Ricks.

Dr. Ricks also points to several infection clusters in medical facilities, underscoring the need for better infection prevention practices inside hospitals.

The CDC says their report doesnt paint the entire picture of the pandemic because of limited data from low-income countries. Only six out of 46 countries in and around Africa had reported COVID-19 cases by the time the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic.

Accurate data from these settings will be needed to assess the full global effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dawood explains.

The study appears in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.

Like studies? Follow us on Facebook!

Read the original here:

CDC Blames Travel From 3 Countries For COVID-19 Spreading Around The World - Study Finds

At the Library: Can’t travel? There are other ways to see the world – Yakima Herald-Republic

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

Under more normal circumstances, summer is the time of year when many of us get bitten by the travel bug. In an alternate reality, I spent the first week of May on a road trip to Utah to attend my sisters college graduation; on the way there, a friend and I would have scheduled a stopover to explore Arches National Park.

In that same, unformed reality, Id be juggling the librarys jam-packed Summer Reading event calendar in order to find a few days that I could get away for a long weekend in Chicago; once there, Id happily wait 30 minutes for a table at an always-

bustling breakfast spot in Andersonville. After that, Id find my happy place at the Printers Row Lit Fest and then, perhaps, spend the evening sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in a room full of strangers at an improv comedy show.

Alas, none of those travel plans were meant to be this year and, like many of you, the hiatus is just another example of the gray area in which we currently exist.

But, look, my intent isnt to win the Debbie Downer crown. Ive decided that its perfectly OK to pine for what might have been while also and this part is important finding ways to adapt to the world as it is now.

So, please settle in for my latest round of suggestions about travel destinations virtual tours, and international experiences you can enjoy without leaving home.

Did you know that the British Virgin Islands are made up of four main islands and more than FIFTY smaller islands and cays? Yeah, neither did I. While beach-y locales arent really my vacation go-to, even I can appreciate the palm trees and gem-bright ocean views all of which are viewable, in real-time, via a collection of webcams scattered around the Islands (go to http://www.bvimariner.com/webcams). But if you prefer a bit more action, you can also take a catamaran and sightseeing trip courtesy of The Adventure Travelers. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCokzveH8HM)

One of my best friends is obsessed with Greenland and, thanks to this gorgeous, birds-eye view video of Greenlands otherworldly landscape and scenery, I totally understand her fascination now. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7hbWvHKns0)

Yellowstone National Park

If youve been reading this column long enough, you might recall that Im not exactly outdoorsy. I admit it: I have a terrible sense of direction and a healthy fear of things that go bump in the night (or in the bushes, during daylight), so, a well-marked nature walk is my idea of roughing it. The good news is that these video walks and virtual tours of Yellowstone National Park are right up my alley: all the stunning, scenic beauty of visiting sites like Dragons Mouth Spring or the Mud Volcano; plus, the availability of a plethora of photographs, sounds and videos mean I can still explore the park without the need for sunblock or bug spray. (www.nps.gov/yell/learn/photosmultimedia/ virtualtours.htm)

If youre anything like me, vacationing isnt just about sightseeing; I also love to learn about a destinations history, art and culture firsthand; and theres perhaps no better place to find all three than in Austria. This walking tour takes you on a lovely, meandering journey with stops at the Love Lock Bridge, Mozarts birthplace, Mirabell Palace and Salzburg Cathedral. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhVMMfe6tuo)

I dont know about you, but when I think of Tokyo, in addition to the amazing food, stunning architecture and history, I definitely think of a techie dreamland.

Given, Im only passingly conversational when it comes to the language of gadgets and technology, but the teamLab Borderless exhibit at the MORI Building Digital Art Museum just might win me over. The exhibit is described as a group of artworks (that) move out of rooms, communicate with other works, influence and sometimes intermingle with each other with no boundaries.

Suffice it to say, I cant even begin to describe the jaw-dropping, music- infused, multicolored, immersive nature of this digital artwork luckily, you can see it for yourself via this series of videos from the museum. (https://border less.teamlab.art/#highlight)

Krystal Corbray is programming and marketing librarian for Yakima Valley Libraries. She and other library staffers write this weekly column for SCENE. Learn more at http://www.yvl.org.

Go here to see the original:

At the Library: Can't travel? There are other ways to see the world - Yakima Herald-Republic

University-affiliated group travel prohibited, personal travel ’emphatically discouraged’ in the fall, says U. – – The Daily Princetonian

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

Students living on campus in the fall are emphatically discouraged from traveling for any reason and to any location outside the immediate Princeton area, read an email to students on Thursday from Associate Provost for International Affairs and Operations Aly Kassam-Remtulla.

Any University-affiliated group travel, including travel organized by student groups, is prohibited, the email explained.

Forbidden group travel will include travel for student activities, research, conferences, faculty-led group, and any other University-related purpose.

The travel guidelines will be in place for the entirety of the fall semester, and will be reassessed and updated at the beginning of each academic semester, according to the email.

Although University-affiliated group travel is prohibited, further guidelines enumerate the procedure for gaining permission for University-sponsored travel. Specifically, all University affiliates must register University-sponsored trips to any destination with the Global Safety & Security (GS&G) unit prior to departure.

Any destination was qualified in the guidelines as outside of Mercer County, New Jersey. The guideline marks a shift from a past requirement for undergraduate students to register their travel outside the New York-to-Philadelphia corridor.

The requirement for registering with GS&G will apply to all faculty members, staff, undergraduate students, and graduate students.

Additionally, when conducting University-sponsored travel, affiliates must comply with University and local, state, and federal public health guidelines, including mask wearing and physical distancing.

With regard to personal travel, undergraduate students who were invited back to live on campus are required to enroll the details of their personal travel outside Mercer County.

The requirement to register personal travel with the University will apply to students invited back who choose to live off campus and visit campus regularly.

Graduate students studying on campus, regardless of whether they live on University property, will also be required to register personal travel.

Faculty and staff members who live and work on campus will not be required, but are encouraged to register any non-routine, overnight personal travel outside of New Jersey.

Those graduate students, faculty members, and staff who commute to campus outside the county do not need to enroll their commutes as travel including in cases when the University subsidizes their commuting costs.

Kassam-Remtulla explained in the email that these determinations on travel policy were made due to the imperative of balancing our communitys need to remain connected to the broader world of research and learning opportunities, with the great risks and uncertainties of any journey during a pandemic.

The risk of bringing infections back to our campus or into the communities we visit took greater priority, and weighed heavily in the Universitys deliberations.

Varying governments responses to the pandemic also created sometimes insurmountable obstacles to the Universitys ability to support travelers in an emergency, read the email.

Kassam-Remtulla also noted that the guidelines were created in collaboration with the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students, Office of the Dean of the College, Office of the Dean of the Graduate School, Office of the Dean of the Faculty, Human Resources, the Office of International Programs, the Davis International Center, University Health Services, Environmental Health and Safety, and Finance & Treasury.

Read the rest here:

University-affiliated group travel prohibited, personal travel 'emphatically discouraged' in the fall, says U. - - The Daily Princetonian

Travel – The surprising truth about pavlova’s origins – BBC News

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

Baking a pav and turning up to a backyard barbecue with the dessert in hand is about as Australian as it gets. On Christmas Day, soon after the last prawn has been peeled, the white meringue cake topped with cream and fruit takes pride of place on tables across the country. Its a dish synonymous with summer celebrations; a refreshing sweet treat on an often hot and sticky day. With many of us being brought up to believe it to be a local invention, its no wonder Australians feel such a strong affinity with pavlova.

The only problem is, New Zealanders feel the same way.

When I was growing up in the 1970s, I remember my mum would make a pavlova and take it to friends houses and parties, said Australian chef Peter Gilmore, who is known for his meringue-based Snow Egg dessert, which found fame in the 2010 series of MasterChef Australia. I think of the Australian variety having tropical fruit, like passionfruit and mangoes. So, when I put my Sydney Opera House-shaped version on the menu at [Sydney Opera House restaurant] Bennelong, passionfruit was the obvious choice for me to feature.

Like many in the industry, Gilmore had long believed the pavlova to be an Australian creation, only recently discovering New Zealand also makes the same claim. The dessert was named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, who was a megastar when she toured both countries in the 1920s.

On the Australia side, chef Herbert Bert Sachse is said to have created the pavlova at Perth's Esplanade Hotel in 1935, and it was named by the house manager, Harry Nairn, who remarked it was as light as pavlova. In an interview with Womans Day in 1973, Sachse said the proprietress, Elsie Ploughman, and Nairn recruited him to make something different and unique as a cake or sweet. I had always regretted that the meringue cake was invariably too hard and crusty, so I set out to create something that would have a crunchy top and would cut like a marshmallow, he said. After a month of experimentation and many failures I hit upon the recipe, which survives today.

New Zealanders often cite the story of an unnamed chef at a Wellington hotel, who is said to have invented the pavlova during the ballerinas only tour of the country in 1926. But emeritus professor Helen Leach, a New Zealander who specialises in food anthropology at the University of Otago and authored The Pavlova Story: A Slice of New Zealand's Culinary History, was unable to verify this version of events.

Its no surprise that both Australia and New Zealand would want to claim it as something they have given the world

However, Dr Leach found references to three types of dessert called pavlova in her homeland prior to Sachses offering. The first was the brand Davis Gelatines multicoloured, layered jelly in 1926. Next came small coffee and walnut-flavoured meringues, similar to kisses, which appeared in the city of Dunedin in 1928 and became popular throughout the country. Then in 1929, a recipe for a large meringue cake named after the ballerina appeared in the regional publication Dairy Farmers Annual. This third type of pavlova was the one that several decades later became the subject of the pavlova wars, which insist that the pavlova was created or invented and then stolen/falsely claimed by chefs/cooks across the Tasman, Dr Leach said.

US-based food scholar Darra Goldstein became fascinated with pavlova after her daughter moved to Australia in 2014, and later New Zealand, and she began collecting cookbooks from both countries. She included a chapter about it, written by Dr Leach, in the book she edited, The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets.

The author said that the precise origins of pavlova cant be determined, and that, in fact, its misguided to believe that recipes are invented rather, recipes evolve over time, often in more than one location, Goldstein said. When theres a dish as popular as pavlova, its no surprise that both Australia and New Zealand would want to claim it as something they have given the world. Friendly rivalries are always fun, and for some its a matter of national pride.

Thats certainly the case for New Zealander Dr Andrew Paul Wood and Australian Annabelle Utrecht, who met debating pavlovas origins on a mutual friends Facebook post. Both went away determined to prove the other wrong. But after they started digging deeper, they were surprised to find that the history of the pavlova goes back a lot further.

You may also be interested in: Is this the world's best falafel Did the Dutch steal this 'superfood'? The truth about the humble French fry

The pair have spent the past seven years piecing together what Utrecht describes as a culinary jigsaw puzzle, trawling through cookbooks, newspapers, still life paintings and archives from around the world. Originally, they planned to make a short documentary, but when they realised the pavlova story was much bigger than just a trans-Tasman battle, they decided to write a book, which has the working title Beat Until Stiff: The Secret History of the Pavlova and a Social History of Meringue Desserts.

To start with, we undertook a forensic examination of both the Kiwi and Australian legends, and new facts [were] quickly revealed that flip the narrative completely, Utrecht said. By the 18th Century, large meringue constructions incorporating cream and fruit elements could be found in aristocratic kitchens across German-speaking lands, so the thing we call a pavlova today is actually more than two centuries old.

Soon, she said, women in middle-class European kitchens began creating meringue cakes topped with whipped cream, nuts and fruit or fruit preserves. Utrecht said Europe was in turmoil with the Napoleonic wars in the 1800s and when people moved and settled in other lands, the pavlova-like desserts went with them. By 1860 you can find it in Great Britain, Russia and North America, she said. I have made a couple of cakes from 1850 that I have served to guests and asked what it was, and they say pavlova. But I tell them its not, its a schaum torte, which means foam cake in German. Utrecht said recipes for shaum torte arrived in South Australia in the lead-up to World War Two, when there was a large influx of German immigrants.

As power shifted between empires and kingdoms, the meringue went with it

But Utrecht said Sachse produced a sophisticated and highly stable pavlova. I have baked his pavlova a couple of times and guests love his cake because its the closest thing to the pavlova in their minds, she said. When I baked the 1929 New Zealand pavlova I was really surprised; its actually a meringue sandwich, not the pavlova we have today. But the next pavlovas that came out of New Zealand by around 1932 to 1933 were single-level cakes topped with fruit and cream.

As for the name, the pair also discovered hundreds of recipes for sweet and savoury dishes named after Anna Pavlova in the northern hemisphere. They include Strawberries Pavlova, an Edwardian-period glac served with a garnish of raspberries, which appeared in the New Zealand Herald in 1911 but Utrecht believes it was reprinted from England. If you go back even earlier in 1911, there was a pavlova dessert in the United States that included a meringue component that could only be obtained under Pavlovas name for a limited time, she said.

Dr Wood said he was particularly surprised to come across a frogs legs pavlova in New York. Annabelle is really the maestro in the kitchen and she tested just about every recipe that we have dug up, but we have not trialled that one, he said.

Dr Wood was even more astonished to find a recipe in medieval Arabic books, including the 13th-Century Syrian cookbook Kitab al-Wusla il al-Habib fi Wasf al-Tayyibat wa al-Tib (Book of the Bond of Friendship in the Description of Good Dishes and Perfumes) that, while not a meringue, if you squinted at it in the right way is similar to an Italian meringue, which is made by pouring a sugar syrup over the top of egg whites rather than the baked kind that were familiar with.

We think this sort of cooking with meringues and sugar syrup probably passed into Europe via Portuguese-controlled territories in Africa (formerly Arab-held), or through the Moorish occupation of Spain, Sicily and France, he said. The earliest European references turn up in places like Italy and Spain, where there was a large Muslim population in the medieval ages. Sugar was incredibly expensive, so these treats were confections destined for the wealthiest of tables, like that of the Imperial Habsburgs, who also happened to be rich in New World sugar. Baked meringues (petite arrangements) can be found in the Spanish Habsburg's Imperial Madrid kitchen by the late 16th and early 17th Century. By the 18th Century, larger and more sophisticated meringue productions begin to reveal themselves in cookbooks, and by the end of the 1700s, very large and sophisticated meringue cakes can be found in the homes of Habsburg nobles, like that of an Austrian meringue cake, three meringue layers high, filled with fruit preserves. Going into the 1800s, meringue cakes became incredibly popular among the wealthy middle classes too.

But he believes the Australasian-style pavlova, perfected by Sachse, was honed by housewives in Americas Midwest by the late 19th Century. Thats where they started adding things like cornflour, he said. Our pavlova usually has a starch ingredient that makes it stiffer and stronger. But the fruit is the big thing; thats probably the biggest difference between Australian and New Zealand pavlova. The New Zealand pavlova is very much a kiwi fruit thing, whereas in Australia you have passionfruit and occasional atrocities Ive seen, like pineapple. In Britain, its very much about strawberries, while in older versions chopped walnut was a big thing.

The thing we call a pavlova today is actually more than two centuries old

Ultimately, Dr Wood said the pair see the great, great granddaddy of the large meringue cake, as we would understand the pavlova, as being the Spanische Windtorte (souffle cake), which was an Austrian dessert consisting of a meringue shell or layers, filled with whipped cream and fruit. It was the first of its kind, and known to be baked in Habsburg kitchens during the late 1700s, he said.

Identical in nature, baiser torte and schaum torte recipes only began to surface during the 1800s when geopolitical factors motivated nomenclature changes in non-Habsburg kingdoms. A large section of our book is dedicated to examining European geopolitics and why the Windtorte was renamed so often.

Dr Wood said its been fascinating following the social history of pavlova, and the family tree of meringues, looking at how meringue cakes possibly started on the African continent and evolved in the Habsburg and Roman Empires in Central Europe. As power shifted between empires and kingdoms, the meringue went with it, he said.

But he admits eating, breathing and sleeping pavlova for the past few years has taken its toll. We had no idea it was going to be this involved when we started it, he said. Im not interested in making them or eating them anymore. For years my family has asked me to make a big pavlova for Christmas, but now its the last thing I want to do.

Food Wars is a series from BBC Travel that invites you to feel the heat when passions flare around beloved dishes that shape a cultures identity.

Join more than three million BBC Travel fans by liking us onFacebook, or follow us onTwitterandInstagram.

If you liked this story,sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newslettercalled "The Essential List". A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.

Visit link:

Travel - The surprising truth about pavlova's origins - BBC News

Unique and beautiful lighthouses around the world – USA Today 10Best

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

Photo courtesy of iStock / j76n

The first lighthouse on record was built between 300 and 280 BC by the Egyptians. Called Pharos of Alexandria,it was used to guide boats to the island of Pharos and was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Since then, these beacons of light have helped ships navigate rough waters, rocky coasts and treacherous sailing.

Here are 15 unique and beautiful lighthouses around the world.

Photo courtesy of E+ / chrisp0

The Cape Reinga Lighthouse is located at the tip of New Zealand where the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea meet. From this vantage point, you can watch as the two sea currents swirl together. When it was built in 1941, it was one of the least accessible lighthouses in the country.

Photo courtesy of iStock / AdamParent

Cape Neddick Light, also known as "Nubble Light," was built in 1879 and is still in use today. Though not accessible to the general public, it can be viewed from the mainland by telescope.

Photo courtesy of iStock / oriba

When the Fingal Head Light was first built in 1872, the lighthouse keeper had to row from the pilot station on Tweed Heads to Fingal every evening to manually light the flame. Today, the light is powered by electricity.

Photo courtesy of iStock / Gerald Zaffuts

The lighthouse on Alcatraz Island was there long before the infamous prison, and, having been built in 1854, it was actually the first lighthouse constructed on the West Coast of the United States. After being damaged in an earthquake, the original was replaced with a new tower in 1909.

Photo courtesy of iStock / jumabufu

The region of Galicia in Spain draws tourists from around the world to see its beautiful lighthouses strewn along rocky coasts. Illa Pancha Lighthouse, pictured here, was built in 1880.

Photo courtesy of iStock / SeanPavonePhoto

George Washington himself commissioned Portland Head Light to be built in 1787, and it was first lit in 1791. It's the oldest lighthouse in the state of Maine and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Photo courtesy of iStock / Ignacio Leonardi

Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse in Beagle Channel is located on a solitary rock that's five nautical miles east of Ushuaia, the provincial capital. Their motto is "end of the world, beginning of everything." And that's exactly what it seems like at this lighthouse located at the southern end of Argentina: the very end of the Earth.

Les Eclaireurs was put into service in 1920.

Photo courtesy of iStock / TonyCataldo

Overlooking a great expanse of the Pacific Ocean, this lighthouse was first built in 1899. After cracks threatened to destroy the integrity of the structure, the tower was rebuilt in 1917. This particularly scenic lighthouse was featured on a U.S. postage stamp in 2007.

Photo courtesy of E+ / PPAMPicture

The beacon with many names, it's been called Hog Island Lighthouse, Paradise Island Lighthouse and Nassau Harbor Lighthouse. It's the oldest lighthouse in the Bahamas, having been built in 1817. The walk to the lighthouse from nearby Atlantis resort can be challenging, and the lighthouse has been neglected, so visitors approach at their own risk.

Photo courtesy of iStock / Ron and Patty Thomas

The name "Marshall Point Light Station" might not be familiar to most, but millions of people saw the lighthouse when it was used as the ending point of Forrest's epic run in "Forrest Gump." The lighthouse was built in 1832.

Photo courtesy of iStock / ChrisBoswell

West Point Light was first built in Seattle in 1881, and it was lit by a kerosene lamp for 44 years before it was finally connected to an electric grid. The best views of the lighthouse are looking south with Mount Rainier towering behind it.

Photo courtesy of iStock / pabradyphoto

Peggy's Point, also known as Peggy's Cove Lighthouse, is the crown jewel of Nova Scotia's "Lighthouse Route." It's noted as one of the most recognizable lighthouses in the world. The structure seen today was built in 1914, replacing the original that was constructed in 1868.

Photo courtesy of iStock / gaspr13

The tiny island of Porer is located just off the coast of Croatia, near the town of Premantura. You can actually spend the night in this lighthouse and do some diving in the surrounding Adriatic Sea.

Photo courtesy of iStock / simonbradfield

Nugget Point is named for the boulders that can be seen in the water right below the point, called "nuggets" by Captain Cook. The lighthouse was built and first lit in 1870. The walk to the point is about 20 minutes and is absolutely stunning.

Photo courtesy of E+ / ejs9

Point Reyes Lighthouse was built in 1870 and has a twin at Cape Mendocino. This 16-sided lighthouse is almost always enveloped in heavy, freezing fog and wind, but visitors who catch it on a clear day are in for an incredible view.

Read the original:

Unique and beautiful lighthouses around the world - USA Today 10Best

The Worm is in the Fruit: A Rising Strategic Foe Inside NATO – RUSI Analysis

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

The recentnaval incident in the Mediterraneanbetween French and Turkish warships is another dramatic development in an already deteriorated situation involving a neo-Ottoman Turkey with growing geopolitical ambitions colliding with the core security interests of many European countries.

On 10 June, the merchant vesselCirkin sailing under the Tanzanian flag, escorted by Turkish warships and suspected of smuggling weapons into Libya in contravention of the UNSecurity Council Resolution 2473,imposing an arms embargo on all the protagonists in the Libyan war was challenged by the French frigateCourbet, which was taking part in NATOs Operation Sea Guardian, whose task is to work with the Mediterranean to maintain maritime situational awareness, as well as deter and counter terrorism. Earlier in the day, an unsuccessful challenge attempt on theCirkinhad been made by a Greek frigate. This frigate was part of the EUsOperationIrini,whose purpose is to implement the UN-mandated arms embargo.

In reaction to theCourbetgetting closer to theCirkin,the Turkish warships flashed their fire-control radars with crews putting on bulletproof vests and standing behind their light weapons. Even by the standards of Cold War confrontations between Western navies and the then Soviet Navys so-calledMediterranean Eskadra, the Turkish Navys behaviour was extremely aggressive.

Immediately thereafter, France requested a NATO Council meeting to discuss the incident and asked for an official inquiry by the Alliance. Interestingly, whereas 10 NATO members supported Frances demand(Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and the UK), none of the Alliances eastern flank (Slovakia excepted) or Nordic members did.

The perspective of Turkey relenting on its longstanding opposition to approving NATOs defence plans for Poland and the Baltic states may have played a role in those countries official silence, yet none of these considerations apply to the USs astounding silence. It is notable, however, that all of NATOs European Mediterranean countries (except Croatia and Albania) supported Frances request.

France also suspended its participation inSea Guardianand asked for the Alliance to collectively adopt some measures, including:

No one should underestimate the seriousness of the tactical standoff that occurred on 10 June, with its risks of escalation. But the growing strategic divide between NATO members that these events underline is even more concerning for the future of the Alliance.

The situation in 2020 can hardly be compared to the one of 1974, a year which saw Ankara invading the northern part of Cyprus and tensions with Greece spiralling dangerously. At that time, the lethal threat emanating from the Soviet Union was still providing the glue which bound the Allies together. Since then, however, circumstances have dramatically changed: a disastrous Trump presidency has hurt the credibility of the US as a guarantor of decent behaviour within the organisation, and has raised doubts about Washingtons commitment to action in the event of an attack against a NATO member. And notwithstanding NATO summit declarations and Moscows rogue international behaviour, it is a fact that the Russian threat is no longer perceived with similar intensity by all NATO members.

One NATO summit after another, the relevance of NATOs added value on its southern flank is regularly questioned. Even though a paragraph of each official communiqu always religiously includes a nod to the issue by evoking NATOs 360-degree approach to security, the reality is that the slogan still lacks significant substance when one looks at NATOs concrete added value in facing some important risks on its southern flank. Among the three core tasks of the2010 Strategic Concept collective defence, crisis management and cooperative security crisis management is the weaker link, which in turn makes the common denominator of strategic interests more tenuous.

Today, through his active military involvement in support of one of Libyas belligerents and its Islamist proxies, and through his contempt of a UNSCR, Turkeys authoritarian leader Recep Tayyip Erdoanis feeding the image of a resurgent imperialist country whose agenda directly impinges on European security interests.

Last months incident only adds to an already long list of unfriendly if not provocative Turkish actions, which include theacquisitionof the sophisticated S-400 Russian anti-air system, the recurrentthreatto terminate the 6 billion subsidy agreement with the EU and to open the Turkeys borders to millions of Middle Eastern refugees towards Europe, as well as the January 2019 military attack against our Kurdish allies in northern Syria our best and more effective partners in the fight against the Islamic State after the inexplicable green light given by Donald Trump without any previous collective consultation among the Allies.

To this egregious behaviour, one should also add: the 2018 harassment by the Turkish Navy of ENI and Total oil and gas exploration ships in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Republic of Cyprus; the subsequent deployment of a Turkish research vessel in the same Cypriot waters in 2019; theTurkish claims on Gavdos, a Greek island free of any Turkish heritage, only for the purpose of vastly extending the Turkish EEZ in the south of Crete; and the recent and legally baselessagreementconcluded with the political authorities in the Libyan capital of Tripoli which would result in sharing almost the entire Eastern Mediterranean between the two countries.

To be clear, a resurgence of terrorist entities in northern Syria and a reinforcement of the most radical factions in Libya through the recentexportby Ankara of thousands of Syrian Islamist mercenaries would constitute worrisome scenarios for Paris and most other European capitals. Indeed, this would carry the risk of spreading more instability in the Sahel region.

All this adds acrimony to the obvious divergence on values between Turkey and the rest of Europe. Erdogansattackson Turkish democratic institutions are of another magnitude than the already worrisome trends that we can observe in a few Eastern European democracies. Journalists, judges and lawyers are prosecuted and jailed, while hundreds ofTurkish officerswho have served within NATO commands have been purged from the military and jailed in many cases.

So, what kind of message does Erdoan'sTurkey want to pass to NATO? And what is the critical breaking point when the interests of having Turkey inside NATO are superceded by the blows which it inflicts on Europes geopolitical interests? The answer to this wont be identical in every European country, but that in itself puts NATO at risk.

If NATO membership would result in effectively shielding Turkeys threatening actions in the Middle East, the Mediterranean and North Africa from any concrete consequences, this would be seen as less and less acceptable by the government in Paris. And that is the true subtext of what Frances authorities are saying in Brussels.

It would be a mistake to underestimate the magnitude of Frances frustration. Nor should it be forgotten that France ranks as the third contributor to NATOs common budget and, above all, is considered by many analysts as the second most militarily credible member of the Alliance.

The views expressed in this Commentary are the authors, and do not represent those of RUSI or any other institution.

BANNER IMAGE:Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan.Courtesy of US State Department / flickr.

Opinion: To Treat Health Care Inequity, Train More Doctors and Nurses of Color – Times of San Diego

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

Share This Article:A class at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles. Courtesy of the universityBy Dr. David M. Carlisle | Special for CalMatters

When I was a young doctor, an older faculty colleague like me, an African-American made a request that I thought was unusual. He asked me to be his personal physician.

Support Times of San Diego's growthwith a small monthly contribution

I said I would but reminded him that, since I was a researcher, it was unlikely, should he need to go to the hospital, that Id be the doctor who would make rounds on him on the floor and manage his day-to-day care.

I asked him why he wanted me to take care of him, and his response stays with me to this day: Because youre theonlyAfrican-American physician here, and if I need a serious, or even life-or-death decision made about my care, I want someone I can trust.

Nearly 50 years after the end of theTuskegee experiments that withheld syphilis treatments from African Americans, mistrust in the health care system by African-Americans and other people of color still persists for good reason. And until we have more physicians, nurses and other health professionals who look like the people theyre treating, it will continue.

Just in case people think were past Tuskegee, there are many recent studies that prove otherwise.A 2016 study of residents our young doctors in training revealed that 50% had false beliefs about African-Americans. For instance, that they had thicker skin or were less sensitive to pain.

A2019 study demonstrated that patients of color presenting in emergency rooms were less likely to get pain medication than white patients: African-Americans 40% less likely, Latinx 25% less likely. Even in the case of a diagnosed bone fracture an extremely painful condition African-Americans were 41% less likely to get pain medication than white people.

Theres plenty of evidence from the coronavirus pandemic that feeds into this distrust, too. According to testing data, African-Americans and Latinxare dying from COVID-19 at disproportionate rates. Social determinants of health, inability to social distance due to cramped living conditions, the economic need to stay at work in low-income, public-facing jobs, and lack of access to health care explain some of it. However, its also due to failures of their interactions with the health care system, even while presenting with COVID-19 symptoms: patients of color being turned away from an ER, not being deemed ill enough for treatment or hospital admission, or simply knowing, based upon experience, that theywouldnt be treated wellin the hospital.

To address this mistrust, we need more health professionals of color: The demographics demand it. California is already a majority-minority state: 39% Latinx, 36% white, 15% Asian, 6.5% African-American. Yet, the percentage ofLatinx and African-American physicians in Californiais very low: 5% Latinx; 5% African-American. Nationally, thefigures are no more impressive: 5.8% of physicians are Latinx, 5% are African-American.

It isnt for simple cultural comfort that we need health practitioners of color though, given our diversity and the history of mistrust and mistreatment, that is a reasonable request of our health care system. It produces better health outcomes.

A 2018 study demonstrated that African-American patients were more likely to follow an African-American physicians orders, particularly on preventive measures, such as flu shots. So, when patients have a cultural rapport with a health provider, they are more inclined to pay attention and do what they are told to do.

All health practitioners need technical competence and good professional judgment to ensure their patients get the best care possible. Thats the essence of the Hippocratic Oath and other oaths that physicians and other health providers swear to uphold.

But in our diverse country, wrestling with both a pandemic and our painful history of systemic racism and gross health disparities, we have an obligation to do all we can to recruit and educate more physicians, nurses and other health professionals of color.

It will be better for everyones health.

Dr. David M. Carlisle is president and CEO of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles. He wrote this commentary for CalMatters, a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how Californias state Capitol works and why it matters.

Opinion: To Treat Health Care Inequity, Train More Doctors and Nurses of Color was last modified: August 6th, 2020 by Editor

>> Subscribe to Times of San Diegos free daily email newsletter! Click here

See original here:

Opinion: To Treat Health Care Inequity, Train More Doctors and Nurses of Color - Times of San Diego

Veterans should have access to great health care – Brunswick News

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

We as a country owe a lot to the men and women who have laid their lives on the line to defend our country. Even when we were just a fledgling group of loosely associated states, citizens rose to the challenge to fight for our freedom.

As the years moved on, soldiers have fought against tyranny around the world in an effort to protect not just our shores, but the entire world.

We owe them a debt greater than we can pay, but we must try to do so anyway.

The most fundamental thing we can do for these brave men and women is to make sure they have access to the proper health care they need. Unfortunately, the system we have set up to do that is more complicated than it should be.

A new Veterans Affair medical center has recently opened in Valdosta. The center wont have much of an impact on our local veterans, though, because of the complex nature of which veterans are sent to which hospital.

If the VA clinic in Brunswick cant treat a veteran, they are sent to Dublin. Hinesville veterans have to go to Macon. Savannah veterans travel up to Charleston. Camden County veterans are sent to Jacksonville.

We echo the thoughts of Bennie Williams, commander of American Legion Post 9 in Brunswick, on the subject: It doesnt make any sense.

Another issue Williams pointed out to The News was how phone calls from veterans trying to reach the Brunswick clinic are automatically routed to the VA hospital in Dublin. Williams said he typically waits 30 to 45 minutes to talk to someone.

The VA has some plans in motion that will benefit area veterans. The administration is currently advertising for land where a new VA clinic for Brunswick will reside. That clinic, Williams said, will offer 60 percent more services than the current one.

We know the people who work at VA clinics and hospitals care about their patients. We also know that Congress hasnt always done its job when it comes to ensuring the agency has what it needs to do its job properly.

The VA is the only access to health care available to some veterans. Those who fought for our freedom deserve to have a system that is well-funded and not overly complicated to navigate.

Lets work together to find a way to make that happen.

See the article here:

Veterans should have access to great health care - Brunswick News

The Line movingly conveys health care workers’ struggles during the pandemic – WSWS

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

Theater on your personal device By Erik Schreiber 7 August 2020

A major role of art is to examine and clarify social reality. The new play The Lineaddresses the ongoing coronavirus pandemic squarely and with great immediacy. Writer-directors Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen wrote the play using interviews that they had conducted with health care workers in New York City this spring, when the city was the national epicenter of the pandemic. This approach has produced a drama with the impact of a dispatch from the front. The actors performances are all the more impressive for having been given in isolation in front of their computers.

The Line was performed live on YouTube on July 8 and will be available for viewing, free of charge, until September 1. A production of New York Citys Public Theater, the play already has been watched more than 38,000 times.

Blank and Jensen have examined contemporary issues in several previous plays. The Exonerated(2002), which won several theater awards, was based on interviews that they had conducted with exonerated death row inmates. Interviews with Iraqi civilian refugees in Jordan formed the basis of Aftermath(2008).

Although it was amply documented in the media, the catastrophe that health care workers in New York faced this spring is hard for the average person to imagine. Hospitals had staff shortages and reassigned workers to care for infected patients even when they were not qualified to do so. Workers scrambled to obtain personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators, IV pumps and medicines such as fentanyl and propofol. As hospital beds became occupied, break rooms were used to house patients. The city dug mass graves on Hart Island for unclaimed victims of the pandemic. Health care workers said they felt extreme stress, emotional exhaustion, and abandonment by their unions.

One of the strong points of The Line is that it shows how the pandemic has affected workers in various parts of the health care system. The characters include a first-year intern, an oncology nurse, an emergency room doctor, a paramedic, an emergency medical technician (EMT) and a nurse at a long-term care home for the elderly. The need for isolation and social distancing likely influenced the decision for the actors to perform the play from their homes. This bare-bones staging, born of necessity, creates a documentary feel, as well as a level of intimacy.

The characters address the camera directly in interwoven monologues. We get to know them as they introduce themselves and tell us how they chose their careers. Soon they describe their initial concern after hearing warnings of the novel coronavirus. Each character sees his or her first cases, and these cases quickly become a flood. Pressure mounts as the characters struggle to manage utter chaos, as the doctor puts it. The EMTs number of daily calls swells from 3,000 to 7,000. The paramedic says that adapting to the pandemic was harder than providing medical care in Iraq during the war.

The characters firsthand accounts are more forceful than any news report. Several characters describe the appalling lack of medical supplies that resulted from decades of attacks on health care funding. The geriatric nurse, for example, is told to reuse PPE rather than discarding it after each patient. This instruction violates the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and those of the World Health Organization. The rules were changing every damn day, says the nurse. She soon becomes infected by the virus.

When her hospital runs out of oxygen, the intern says, I really felt like I was in another country. She and her colleagues rig up bilevel positive airway pressure machines as makeshift ventilators when none of the latter are available. Patients lie in hallways, and medical staff are forced to turn away other sick patients when all the beds are occupied. I felt like I was in a war, and we had no support, says the intern. I felt like nobody cared.

Several characters criticize the way management at their facilities handled the crisis. The geriatric nurse opposed the administrations policies, but, under duress, kept her opinions to herself. The intern recounts her impulse to go to the media to publicize her hospitals desperate state, but management warns her that this act would be grounds for termination. I was so upset, I ended up having to talk to a psychiatrist.

All the characters express their torment and sorrow at having to turn away distraught family members who want to see their dying loved ones for a final time. After the EMT is told to bring bodies directly to the morgue instead of the hospital, he allows family members to assemble around his ambulance for brief, impromptu wakes.

When the geriatric nurse recovers from the virus and returns to work, she finds that half of her facilitys residents have died, and her coworkers are traumatized. Weeks later, a manager announces that she will bring a grief counselor to the facility for one day, supposedly for the employees benefit. The geriatric nurse can no longer suppress her anger. Im not going to go, because its been almost a month, and if you really wanted a grief counselor in here, you wouldve had that person come in here when our residents were dying. Right now, what I really feel is that youre just sending that person in so that you could say that you gave us support, right? Its too little. Its too late.

Many of the characters are uneasy about being lauded as heroes, and one rejects the designation outright. The doctor suggests, If you really want to help doctors and show them appreciation, give their patients health care. Referring to the military flyover of New York City, which was allegedly staged to honor health care workers, he adds in exasperation, Dont fly weapons of destruction and death over people who are trying to prevent destruction and death!

Espousing a view promoted by the media and sections of the upper-middle class, the doctor implies that racism is the reason that certain ethnic groups have suffered more from the pandemic than others. It is true that the pandemic has had a disproportionate effect on African-Americans, for example. But African-Americans also are disproportionately poor, and the pandemics heavy toll on underscores the primary effect of class on health outcomes. Various studies have established a correlation between socioeconomic status and vulnerability to the pandemic. Identity politics distorts this reality and elevates race above all other factors.

Blank and Jensen deserve praise for critically examining the health care systems response to the pandemic, and for putting workers experiences in the forefront. The Line is a salutary artistic response to this historic health crisis. It is an indication of the potentially vital new forms that playwrights and actors can create, even without stage or set, during a period of isolation.

Editorial: Improve mental health care before forcing it on people – Los Angeles Times

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and a handful of state legislators have been trying to change Californias landmark mental health laws to make it easier to force treatment on people who dont want it. But bills to scrap or change the law that limits forced treatment the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, signed into law by Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1967 havent made it through the Legislature.

So last year critics tried a different tack: Require an official audit of LPS and how it operates in L.A. and two other counties, presumably to show how badly the act fails, and how outdated the notion is that people should have more say in choosing their own mental health treatments.

Instead, the audit released late last month found that the act gives counties all the authority they need to treat people in crisis. The real problem, the audit found, is not the patients right to self-determination, but the failure of the state and counties to provide sufficient ongoing care and housing after the forced treatment ends. Without those services, patients end up in a dismal and destructive cycle careening from a 72-hour 5150 hold to the street, to another mental health crisis that endangers themselves or others, and back to another three-day hold. Each new breakdown can cause further lasting damage.

Counties sometimes obtain renewable yearlong conservatorships but dont provide sufficient treatment, often because it is unavailable.

Perhaps its time for LPS critics to rethink their approach. The state has to find a way to fund, and counties to provide, ongoing mental health care. Sufficient and humane services (and housing, when needed) that leave patients a voice in important decisions and dont make them feel trapped could go a long way toward meeting the states mental health challenge.

There can be no doubt that California is in the midst of a mental health emergency. Serious mental illness afflicts a significant portion of the states huge homeless population, although contrary to a widespread perception far less than half of the tens of thousands of people on the streets. Between 30% and 40% of jail inmates also suffer a significant mental health condition. Less noticed are the families doing their best to care for a stricken relative. The COVID-19 crisis and the companion isolation and anxiety only exacerbate the condition of people already struggling with psychological problems.

Like other states, California once had a robust but deeply flawed system of mental hospitals that largely kept patients out of public view but too often failed to properly treat them. Forced treatment in warehouse-type institutions was phased out and was to be replaced by community-based outpatient or, when necessary, inpatient treatment.

But the community services never materialized to match the volume of need.

The LPS law, fully implemented in the 1970s, limited the states ability to institutionalize people and to treat them against their will.

Now the debate over mental health care too often breaks down along ideological lines over the question of which is paramount a persons liberty and self-determination, or that persons health and well-being. The results are often surprising. Conservatives might be expected to promote individual rights. If requiring a mask during a pandemic is an unwarranted intrusion on liberty, for example, how much more so is government-enforced psychiatric treatment? Yet many conservatives and other skeptics of government find themselves pressing for re-institutionalization. Liberals who might support masks and government-ordered business closures appear split on compelled mental health treatment.

Beyond ideology, California has a serious shortage of mental health services in any setting. LPS doesnt require the counties or the state to fix that problem. Some county mental health professionals want the act amended to compel them to provide care, because only then, they argue, will counties step up to avoid costly lawsuits.

And there is indeed a crisis, not addressed by LPS, of mentally ill people who are slowly deteriorating but dont recognize their condition (or dont care) and are not undergoing the kind of breakdown that the law deems fair game for a 5150 hold. But Californias priority should be providing people the services they need, not forcing them to use services that are inadequate to keep them out of the street-to-care-to-street cycle.

There will be no way to fix mental health care on the cheap. The need is profound, but its not so much the law standing in the way as it is the failure to live up to the promises of more than half a century ago to provide adequate mental health treatment where it is most effective.

Excerpt from:

Editorial: Improve mental health care before forcing it on people - Los Angeles Times

Select Page ::